Kapalua's Bay Course For Sale

The Bay Course at Maui's Kapalua Resort is on the market and the seller would like roughly $30 million, says the listing agent, Jeff Woolson of CB Richard Ellis. That's $20 million less than the resort's Plantation Course fetched earlier this year.

The Bay Course, which carries four and a half stars (out of a possible five) in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings, is a resorty Arnold Palmer/Francis Duane design that hugs the Pacific Ocean. Until this year it was the site of the LPGA Kapalua Classic, which fell victim to the economy.

The adjacent Plantation course, also with four and half stars, is a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw layout. It hosts the PGA Tour season opener each January. It is now controlled by TY Management Corp., an investment company incorporated in Hawaii.

My colleague Matt Ginella has lots of good info about visiting Kapalua in this Golf Digest article from early 2009.

Resort developer Maui Land & Pineapple Co. unloaded Plantation and is now selling the Bay Course as part of a plan to focus on its core development business, Woolson says.

Though the market is distressed, he assures the Bay Course property is not. "It generates significant gross revenue and positive net income," Woolson says. The owners are estimating it will host 36,000 rounds this year. That's down from roughly 40,000 in 2008.

Woolson, whose firm recently brokered the Yellowstone Club sale and also has the listing on the Kingsmill Resort in Virginia, imagines an international buyer might step up for the Bay Course. "We've had most interest from within the U.S.," he says, "but a lot of good responses from overseas as well."

-- P.F.